If you haven’t yet heard about Augmented Reality or Web Squared, allow me to make a quick introduction.

This is the next iteration of the Web and also desktop and mobile applications and is indicative of the future hybrid Web and device experience. And no, it’s not called Web 3.0.

Augmented Reality joins the likes of the Semantic Web, Geo-Location, Artificial Intelligence, among many other emerging technologies in what the father of Web 2.0, Tim O’Reilly, refers to as Web Squared.

Augmented Reality (AR) refers to the live direct or indirect view of a real-world environment whose elements are supplemented with, or augmented by, computer-generated imagery. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and harmoniously displayed through meaningful context with environmental elements.

What does this mean for you?

As a user, Augmented Reality apps merge the virtual with reality – or the augmented data and objects with real life experiences. As a content producer, you now have the ability to bring your content to life – and this is incredibly powerful and transformative.

In the last weeks, we’ve witnessed the release of several new Augmented Reality applications for mobile platforms.

Thanks, Brian. Amazing post (and technology!)
I think it means big changes whether we like it or not. We all have the capacity to control how much technology we allow into our lives, but business and peer pressure is very real. It’s almost as if your value as an employee is now a function of how much you are on top of the latest technology.
As for our children, they experience and absorb the latest technology as a given without the same perspective we have to make our own choice.
As the computer or phone screen continues to expand to fill our real world lives, crowding out direct experience more and more, the most valuable application of our time may well be to walk away from technology which, ironically, is where we started before the consumer technology revolution began.
In the meantime, I like many others I suspect, will be captivated by what’s suddenly possible, and no doubt soon to be replaced.
Thanks for all the great thinking, Simon

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ABOUT ME

Brian Solis is a digital analyst, anthropologist, and also a futurist. In his work at Altimeter Group, Solis studies the effects of disruptive technology on business and society. He is an avid keynote speaker and award-winning author who is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders in digital transformation.

His most recent book, What's the Future of Business: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences (WTF), explores the landscape of connected consumerism and how business and customer relationships unfold in four distinct moments of truth. His previous book, The End of Business as Usual, explores the emergence of Generation-C, a new generation of customers and employees and how businesses must adapt to reach them. In 2009, Solis released Engage, which is regarded as the industry reference guide for businesses to market, sell and service in the social web.